The early history of the Bácheveaj/ Pasvik Valley in light of pollen analyses and
archaeological material Little archaeological research and very few pollen analyses have been conducted in inland Finnmark. Archaeologically, the Báhceveaj/Pasvik River Valley represents a contrast, as several larger and smaller excavations have been undertaken there. The archaeological material from a number of significant sites along the river suggests several intensive occupation phases with long intervening periods during which the sites seem to have been abandoned.
New pollen data from three sites with multiple hunter-fisher occupation phases are presented and discussed in light of the archaeological data. Settlement dynamics inferred from the pollen data are deforestation due to large-scale pottery production around 5000 cal. BC, several short phases of domestic animal maintenance after 300 cal. BC and two phases of limited cultivation after 350 and 600 cal. AD.